One major obstacle in the precision connection of optical fibers, including the connection of optical multichannel waveguide devices, MTP connectors and similar devices, is the critical alignment of an optical waveguide to its signal input and output. This is especially critical when various optical components are interfaced to ribbonized fibers when used in conjunction with single or multichannel optical fiber waveguides or similar optical components.
In some prior art techniques, a substrate has a number of channels that are aligned with fibers by actively passing light through the optical fibers and/or devices to align the optical fibers. A power meter is typically used to measure the percentage of light passing through the connected device and optical fiber to assure that the fiber alignment is correct. Once any optical fiber and connector alignment is determined to be correct, epoxy is dropped over the substrate and optical fiber to bond and cure the optical fibers into a set position. This process is known as “active alignment” and is a very labor intensive process, requiring high skill and the use of high precision opto-mechanical alignment systems.
One prior art technique to overcome these drawbacks is a precision passive alignment technique used for connecting MTP multifiber connectors and similarly designed optical connector applications. The MTP connector assembly includes a precise multifiber array and ferrule and passive alignment mechanism formed by two guide holes and pins. An example of such passive alignment MTP connector assembly is disclosed in the technical paper, MT Multifiber Connectors and New Applications, 44th Electronic Components and Technology Conference, 1994, the disclosure which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. A passive alignment accuracy of 2 micrometers has been obtained for a number of fibers with that technique. The passive alignment between a multimode 12-fiber ribbon terminated with the MT (or MTP) connector and a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) array of 10 micrometer active diameter held a high percentage of coupling efficiency. This allowed a fiber ribbon-to-fiber ribbon connection using an intermediate connector as described.
It would be advantageous if a waveguide interface could be provided as a passive alignment optical connector adapter for interfacing single or multichannel waveguide devices to fiber, such as by coupling a MTP connectorized ribbon adapter and multichannel waveguide device, such as an amplifier. This could occur without any intermediate steps as in the prior art, allowing automated coupling and connection directly to the multichannel waveguide device, including ferrules, modulators, waveguides, amplifiers and similar optical devices.